Environmentalist to DPWH: Don’t justify tree murder

URDANETA CITY—Officials of government agencies who wanted to cut trees along the Manila North Road (MNR) traversing eastern Pangasinan towns are now using the “dead tree discourse” to justify the “murder” of the trees, an environmentalist said here.

“They used this in Cebu [province]. They are saying these trees are dead or deceased [and] therefore, they should be cut for public safety,” said Patria Gwen Borcena, an environmental sociologist and founding president of Green Research.

Borcena was reacting to a recent statement of a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district engineer that 138 girdled trees were already dead, citing an inventory report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Emmanuel Diaz, DPWH district engineer, said the dead trees, if not removed, would endanger travelers along the highway connecting Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison towns, and Urdaneta City.

Diaz said his office had asked a court here to order the DPWH to remove the dead trees.

These trees are part of the 770 remaining trees spared when the DPWH’s permit to cut 1,829 trees to give way to a road-widening project in the 42-kilometer section of the MNR lapsed in February.

The DPWH has applied for another tree-cutting permit. But environmental groups have opposed it by asking a court in Urdaneta City to issue an environmental protection order.

“We cannot just accept their justification in cutting the trees because it’s possible that they have hidden motives. They just really want to kill all the trees there,” Borcena said. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon